Wednesday Nov 22, 2006
Hi Mom,
Here is the green wishlist I promised you. I don't really expect you to get me the solar-powered messenger bag as the Timbuktu bag Sun gave away at JavaOne during Bike to Work week is working just fine.
I understand your anxiety now with such steep eco requirements for Hanukah this year (and every year). I am glad I took the time to create a shopping list for you.
Froogle was pretty buggy and so I don't recommend anyone use it unless they have a lot of patience and time (I was sick in bed). It also doesn't find every gift out there very easily. Neither did Amazon. In fact, I have found the green-wishlist-making chore a big pain. There really is not a good site out there yet to find green gifts. I looked at all the top results in Google, including NRDC, Sierra Club, and an old Wired article. Not much there really.
Then I went to my old standbys - WorldChanging, Treehugger.com, and a few others I am sure. But lo, nothing was satisfactory. I had to do it the hard way, one website at a time, with very specific search criteria such as 'recycled rubber briefcase'. I guess nothing really ever changes. If your mother is like mine and just wants you to tell her what to get you, there's no better way than picking out the gift yourself and making her job that much easier.
There was a good comment though that I did not think of on my previous post that another gift idea are music gift certficates.
Oh, and as for wrapping paper, how about this year use grocery bags or material from packaging that is currently sitting in your recycling bin.
OK, I'll give you a call now, as I don't think you ever read this blog, not yet anyway:)
Love,
Aaron
Friday Nov 17, 2006
Self-professed "raving capitalist" Scott McNealy talked about Sun's eco-responsibility initiative with Charlie Rose at a TechNet panel and even showed him what our eco-effective chip looked like.
This is what our CoolThreads processor looks like:
(source:)
Unfortunately I didn't get to see this panel so am catching up on the news like everybody else. See here
or here
or
here
or
here
Agenda of event
here.
Going Green...Solutions for the Future
John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Scott
McNealy, Chairman, Sun Microsystems; and KR Sridhar, Co-Founder and
CEO, Bloom Energy
Moderated by Charlie Rose followed by Q&A
I hear a transcript is on the way which I will try to post.
UPDATE
Photo:
Photo Credit
Energy facts, as reported by TechNet at the summit: The
U.S. is the world's largest consumer of oil. It accounts for 25 percent
of global daily consumption, but holds less than percent of world's
proven oil reserves. The Middle East by contrast holds more than 61
percent of the world's oil reserves (U.S. Department of Energy). The
power of the sun: All the energy stored in the earth's reserves of
coal, oil and natural gas is equal to the energy from only 20 days of
sunshine (Energy Information Administration). Clean, renewable
energy like solar and wind power currently produces roughly 2 percent
of U.S. electricity. In contrast, nearly 90 percent of our electricity
still comes from traditional sources such as coal and nuclear power
(U.S. Department of Energy). (source)
Thursday Nov 16, 2006
My sister Stacy sent me this from her phone today. Apparently every paper in San Francisco was wrapped in this today.
PS -- I wanted to also give a quick tip to those that read my blog regularly. I have a surprise in store for the entire Sun blogger community and everyone that reads Sun blogs. I'm very excited about it. Obviously can't even hold it back much. The first person who guesses (insiders don't count!) I'm going to send them a special gift -- a rechargeable keychain USB flashlight for those dark and stormy nights.
Monday Nov 13, 2006
Warning: this is a rambling blog post.
From the look of my blog you might think I've been an eco warrior forever.
Far from reality.
In fact, only for the past 5-6 weeks have I been literally drinking from the green firehose -- from listening to Al Gore speak last Friday at the Climate Protection Summit, to listening to DuPont speak about how they've cut 50% of their GHG emissions from 1990 to 2000, to being part of a business thinktank on the issue of how businesses can affect change...
So when I had people over last night at my weekly Soup Sunday dinner party, and when I had friends over this weekend from Sacramento and Santa Rosa respectively, I just couldn't stop talking about my newfound passion for reducing my greenhouse gas emissions at home. I wanted everyone to join in on my new crusade. I feel enlightened, now shouldn't you?
Well, not so fast. People need to come to these things on their own terms. It's not too bad. It's reality.
I have had to, as well.
I have had a whole swirl of emotions that have gotten hold of me as of late, in part, thanks to Sun's own commitment, in part, thanks to living in a green city for a full year now, and in part because I'm part of tens of thousands across the U.S. that are starting to feel a real purpose and sense of urgency around this global issue. The emotions range from being motivated, sickened, scared, and inspired all at the same time.
But wait, if you're too passionate about something you can either annoy people or they think you're trying to convert them.
There seems to be a fine line with friends and colleagues in terms of what topic one can talk about and at what length and what volume. The good news is I am actually able to talk semi-intelligently to strangers about this topic and they all seem very interested in hearing more (and surprised I am the one talking). I just was passing around Cradle to Cradle yesterday and showing everyone the weight of the book, and sharing the fact that it wasn't made out of trees. That alone is a conversation starter..
I have been wanting to make this kind of rambling post for a while. This kind of post is about the green water I'm treading in.
First, it's about me as a person, and it's also about our company. I want to share things that I have learned with friends, but I don't want them to get turned off by my green rantings. But since it's such an important issue I want to encourage a healthy dialogue. Second, it's about my company. Clearly Sun is now taking a thought leadership role around the area of climate change and eco responsibility. But what about our customers? I certainly don't want to turn off our customers with all of this green talk, who, like Sun, have a mission-critical business to run. And so this is the green dilemma. Does Green really mean business for our customers? If it doesn't now, how soon will it?
And I think in part it (this uneasy feeling) comes from the fact that I'm green on being green. In another five years, I won't be, and many of our customers won't be, either. I won't be as uncomfortable partly because I've felt like I am making some differences, but also because the topic will be even more accepted. I will be more comfortable in my role and our company will be more comfortable with its role and our customers with theirs, and so on. It's going to take some time -- some getting used to--I predict five more years--but I still think we are approaching a real tipping point, and it's only a matter of time before we all come together on this issue. More on this to come.
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